Time Doesn't Heal Everything
by Lara Chubb of Deephollow
Summary: One-shot. Angst. A wife and daughter are found murdered in their home, and it has an obvious effect on Jane. Told from Lisbon's POV. Not Jisbon.


Hey there peeps! So it's been a while since I've posted anything.... Okay so it's been a LONG while, but I'm sorry. Anyway, lately I've been catching up on the first season of 'The Mentalist' I can't believe I didn't watch much of it when it started, but I've seen the error of my ways and I'm almost done with the first season. So my new love for this show and my love of angst has spurred into this one-shot....

Disclaimer: I don't own The Mentalist, I wish I did.

A/N: Okay, I don't know if Lisbon would be filing paperwork in the middle of the night, or filing at all for that matter. But I couldn't think of anything else.... so sue me.... but then look at the disclaimer above and change your mind about suing me.

Whoops! Starting to ramble.... on with the fic!

Teresa Lisbon was filing away some paperwork, it was late and she was just about to get done. She didn't have to stay this late finishing, but she couldn't stand the thought of putting it off till tomorrow, might as well get it over with now. Looking around, she realized she must have been the only one left at the bureau.

"Damn, it's late," she said to herself, looking at her watch. "oh well," she thought, it's not like she had anything better to do.

As she was finishing up her filing, her thoughts turned to how the day had been. It was a long day, not hard, but it was long. The team had been called up to a double homicide at an ungodly hour, but that was not the worst part. No matter how many times she had seen a dead body, it was still hard to look at, especially when there was a child evolved. A mother and her child had been found dead in there suburban home, the time of death was estimated about ten o'clock the previous night. But like she said, it wasn't a hard day (well, job-wise it wasn't) the killer produced himself almost a couple hours after they had arrived. It was the husband, guess he couldn't live with the thought of killing his family. He had confessed to Agent Cho that he had a bad day at work and his wife hadn't left dinner for him. He said that he was just so angry, they got into an argument, and he killed her. It wasn't long before his young daughter had walked down stairs and in his panic ended up killing her too.

He had a bad day at work. . . Lisbon was sometimes really puzzled why people try to justify their crimes with trivial things like that. It was sickening. She supposed it was just human nature to try to justify things no matter how stupid it sounds. She went over some similar scenarios that she had heard of: She didn't like the way I colored my hair, so I beat her to death. He wouldn't stop smacking his gum, so I shot him. She didn't love me, so I strangled her. He made fun of me on T.V., so I killed his family. . .

Oh God, poor Jane. He barely said a word while they were at the crime scene, and for Jane that was something. She could tell that he was really bothered by this. She probably was the only one who could see that, Rigsby was too busy looking at Van Pelt, Van Pelt was busy trying not to notice him staring at her, and Cho, well he was just busy being himself. But Lisbon noticed, she could see he was hurting.

It had been almost six years now, since Red John had murdered his wife and daughter. And there was no doubt in Lisbon's mind that they were the ones he was thinking about while looking at the scene. She really wished that she had been told the situation before getting there, she would have told him to take the day off. Then again, it probably wouldn't have done much good, he would show up anyway. But seeing him just stare at the bodies like he was, it was truly heartbreaking. He barely took his eyes off their lifeless forms the whole time they were there. Lisbon had tried talking to him about the case, trying to distract him from the scene on the floor. But he just looked up at her and said dryly, "I don't know." Wow, that was another big hint that he was in some real pain. Patrick Jane never 'didn't know' even when he didn't know who the killer was, he was sure that he would soon. She had never seen him like this. But, as she said before it wasn't long before they were back at CBI headquarters filing out paperwork. As the rest of them worked, Jane went to get some tea and she hadn't seen him much the rest of the day.

"Finally," Lisbon murmured, her filing was done. Time to go home.

Just as she was about to go out the door Lisbon realized that in her hurry she had forgot her keys. Briskly she walked back to her office, ready to go home and get in bed. As she was walking back with keys in hand, she herd something toward the other desks. Could someone still be here? She was sure everyone had left. Lisbon turned the corner to see who it was. It was Jane, he was sitting on his usual spot oh the couch with his head in his hands. When she walked closer he looked up at her, he had been crying. Lisbon didn't need super powers of perception, like Jane, to see that.

"Oh, I didn't know you were still here," Jane said, obviously forcing a smile.

"Jane..." Lisbon said as she sat her self beside him, "are you alright?"

"Who me? Oh I'm fine. I just. . ." his voice cracked, "I just can't bring myself to go home." He looked at her then with his eyes red and full of tears, and she could feel his pain almost as if it were her own. No wonder he couldn't go home, she had forgotten that he still lived in the same house where his family was murdered.

"Oh Patrick..." Lisbon soothed, placing her arm around his shoulders.

"I...I tried...I...just can't," and that's when he broke down, falling into Lisbon's arms. "I miss them so much," he sobbed.

"I'm so sorry," Lisbon said, about to burst into tears herself.

Agent Lisbon wasn't fully prepared for this, her job was to close cases not help with grief that duty belonged to someone else. She didn't really like to deal with emotions, hers and other peoples. When her mother died and her father spurred into alcoholism, keeping to herself became a way of life for her and her brothers. And eventually, when her father killed himself, that hardened her more than ever. But as uncomfortable with emotions as she was right now, she didn't think twice about sitting with Jane. And she sat with him until he was able to stop crying and sit up.

Lisbon wasn't sure what to do next, she couldn't stay all night here, but she couldn't leave Jane by himself. He needed to be with someone tonight. So she said the first idea that came to her head.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. You're coming home with me, and I'm going to make you a nice cup of tea. How does that sound?"

Jane nodded and gave a weak smile.

"You'll be sleeping on my couch," she said standing up and stretching a little.

"Of course, but I'll be sleeping with one eye open. I can see though you're little trap," he said reverting back to his normal cocky tone.

"Uh huh. You got me," she said flatly. Lisbon was glad to see his old self coming back, though she predicted that feeling would be short lived. "Come on," she gestured toward the parking lot and they walked off. As she drove home with Jane she was thankful for the paperwork that kept her late. She was glad to be there for him, no one else was going to be.

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So...... that sucked.... but at least I got that out of my system. I wasn't going for a Jisbon thing but I guess that there was a hint of it... I'm not really comfortable with the whole Jisbon pairing, I'm fine with them just being friends.

Well... Like I said, that's not my best, but I hope it was at least a good time filler...

anyway Plz R&R!!!! Critiques are welcome. :-) In fact Critiques are the reason I posted this crap….

P.S. yes the Gum Smacking senario was taken from Chicago..... I don't own that either.

P.P.S. As I said earlier, I haven't finished watching the first season, so if anything happens that is similar to this or totally wipes out the possibility of this ever happening…. I didn't know…

***And no spoilers!* **


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